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NOAA's Aquarius:
an underwater research facility.

Types of Diving -- Saturation Diving

"Saturation diving" is a technique
developed by the U.S. Navy in the late 1950s that permits divers
to remain at high pressures for weeks or months without having
to often undergo decompression and waste the diver's time. Researchers
discovered that when a diver is underwater for a long time --
days or weeks, for example - the time needed to decompress reaches
a maximum and stable point. The diver becomes "saturated"
and no longer accumulates additional gas such as nitrogen or helium.
In other words, decompression time for a diver who has been underwater
for one day may be the same as for a diver who has been down for
a week.

Divers operating in the saturation mode live
underwater and work out of a pressurized facility, such as a diving
bell or underwater habitat, typically for a week or more, as in
NOAA's Aquarius habitat at Key Largo, Florida, or in the North
Sea oil fields. These facilities are maintained at the pressure
of the depth at which the diver will be working. Today, a great
deal of underwater work is done using remotely operated vehicles
(ROVs) that are controlled from the surface. Still, there
are some underwater jobs only a human diver can accomplish.